Blood and Bats
Synopsis Claire Nightshade was returning to Leather Wing Manor, from school when she suddenly smells fresh blood. Running to that location, she finds a boy, lying in a puddle of blood, nearly dead! She brings him to her home, hoping to help him. Alucard explained that the boy was bit only recently, and is still in the process of turning into a vampire. However, he states that the aura he feels is not of a normal vampire. The one who bit the boy was a Vampire King. Or more exactly, a Queen. When asked about it, Alucard reveals that, besides him, there are seven other Kings. The one ruling America, Lilith, is a sadist and a BDSM addict, and the things she does make 50 Shades of Gray look like a children's book. She cares about no one, not even her own servants. That is why Alucard was confused about her actions: she would NEVER simply turn someone, even if they are on the brink of death. Not without them swearing allegiance to her. And yet, the boy in front of them did not. When the boy wakes up, he introduces himself as Neo Kane, and explained how he ended up like that. When Alucard told him that he had been bit by a vampire, and was now one himself, Neo is at first skeptical. But when Alucard shows him a picture of Lilith in an one hundred-year-old book, he believes. He decides to stay at the Manor until he gets used to his "condition", so he calls his parents and tells them that he is feeling a bit sick, and that he will be stating at a friend's place until he calmed down a bit. Meanwhile, the vampire Bloody Mary is planning another attack on Leather Wing Manor, when one of her Ghouls (who had been at Claire's house) gives her a flier for High-Bridge Academy. Realizing that Claire, and maybe even Alucard are going to that school, Mary makes a plan to attack it. The next day, Peter, Mikey, Ashley, Sarah, and Rachel are at High-Bridge Academy, due to a one-day exchange student program with Shepard High. They were on their way to meet their allies, the Darke Pack, but Peter suddenly smells something he never had never smelled before: something powerful... and ancient. Following the scent, he ends up in the mess hall. There, he sees that the scent is coming from a pale, black haired boy, sitting on the back. He notices a similar smell from the red haired girl standing next to him. As if sensing him, the boy turned around, and looks straight at Peter, who notices the boy's unnatural red eyes. Before anything else could happen, Mikey comes and tells Peter that they need to get going. Peter doesn't respond at first, and Mikey asks if something is wrong, to which Peter tells him about the scent, and shows him the boy, but he is gone. Alucard had also smelled Peter, and told Claire that the exchange students were werewolves. Claire sighed, commenting the the ones that were already here were enough. The Talbots meet with the Darkes, and start conversing. At one point, Peter and Rachel started arguing which pack knew the most interesting persons. Rachel crosses her arms, and smiles, preparing to tell him about someone in school, when they all hear screams. Bloody Mary initiated her attack, alongside her accomplice, Aro, unleashing her Ghouls on the school. The Talbot and Darke Packs were quick to hide, change, and spring into action, battling the Ghouls. Alucard and Claire did the same. At one point, Mary bit two girls, who were friends of Claire, and on which she had smelled Claire's scent. Just then Zoe Wilde (in her werewolf form), approaches her and shines a UV light in the vampire's face. Zoe and Mary start fighting, but the vampire seemed much stronger, and eventually pins Zoe to the wall, choking her. Suddenly, someone shines the UV lamp in Mary's face, distracting her, and allowing Zoe to kick her into a wall. Zoe looks up and sees that the one that saved her was Nathan Forge. He rushes to her, and asks if she is alright, calling her on her real name. Zoe tries to deny it, but Nathan shows her the UV lamp, as it was something they had worked on together. He told her that he doesn't quite understand what is going on, and Zoe promises to explain. Nathan than gets up, and offers Zoe his hand, but, just as she grabs it, Mary pops up behind Nathan, and bites his neck. The last thing Nathan heard before falling unconscious was Zoe, calling out his name. During this, Peter and Alucard confronted each other, the former accusing the latter of unleashing the Ghouls. At this distance, Alucard notices that Peter's smell is very familiar. However, not having time to argue, he asks Peter to step aside, as he cannot defeat him. When Peter refuses, Alucard attacks him, and the two begin fighting, with Peter initially being overwhelmed by him. However he pushes back, impressing Alucard with his drive. When asked why he keeps fighting, Peter responds that he was given great power, even if he did not choose it, and with it great responsibility. He said that he will protect the word from creatures like him, even if it leads to his death. He then attacks Alucard, attempting to punch him. As he charges, Alucard suddenly has a flashback of his encounter with a young werewolf, bearing many similarities with Peter. He easily catches the punch, and Peter attempts to punch with his other hand, but, upon seeing Alucard's expression, he stops. Looking Peter deep in the eyes, and sniffing a bit, Alucard's eyes widen, then close. Finally, he opens his eyes and, giving a soft smile, calls him his real name, and says that he had many similarities with his grandfather. Shocked by this, Peter stepped back, demanding who he was and how he knew his grandfather. Telling him to calm down, as they are on the same side, Alucard introduces himself, saying that he once met his grandfather, a long time ago. He promised to give him more details, after they deal with the crisis at hand. All this time, Claire was introduced to the Talbots by Jasmine Sooza while the two Packs were dealing with Bloody Mary, Aro and the Ghouls, but they were having a tough time, but then Peter and Alucard arrive just in time. Alucard easily kills the Ghouls with the Shadow Fang, while Peter confronts Aro. During the fight, Aro feels a powerful aura emanate from Peter. The aura of a True Alpha. Scared out of his mind, Aro starts backing away from Peter, begging him to stay back. As he is distracted, Claire stabs him with the Blood Fangs, killing him. Mary also felt the aura of the the Alpha on Peter, and realized how dangerous it would be for him to live. She attempted to kill him, but Alucard quickly intervenes. The two fought, with Mary, in anger and frustration, unleashed her True Form, knocking Alucard in a wall. She once again turned to Peter, but a small chuckle makes her turn towards Alucard again. Though heavily wounded, Alucard gets up and starts to slowly approach Mary, all the while chuckling and giving a creepy smile. Getting scared by the abrupt change in personality, Mary attacks Alucard with blood projectiles, piercing him in several places. Despite bleeding heavily and grunting in pain, Alucard still approached Mary. Suddenly he stops, and said that he is glad to finally meet an opponent that is not all talk. He then lifts his hand, displaying a red bracelet, with a set of runes inscribed on it On the sidelines, Claire has a flashback, of Alucard telling her that, should he ever display the red bracelet he was wearing during a fight, she should stay back. Taking his advice, Claire tells the Packs to stay back, as something bad was about to happen. Right on que, Alucard rotates the rune-writen part of the bracelet, causing the runes to glow a bright red, thus releasing his first seal, and Awakening. He bombards Mary with the full power of his shadows, all the while summoning swarms of bats. Alucard eventually knocks her down, and starts to slowly approach her. Mary was shocked at the quantity of power Alucard was displaying. Even more shocking to her was the fact that Alucard was only in his Awakening. Alucard than starts taunting her, demanding she show him her full power. Completely terrified, Mary shouts at him to stay back, calling him a monster. Alucard's smile fades, and he turned his back on her, saying that she was just like the others, and that she has centuries before she can compare with him. He than starts walking away, all the while gathering shadows under Mary. She angrily gets up, and creates a dagger out of blood, preparing to stab him. Just than, Alucard creates tens of spikes from the shadow beneath her, piercing her all over the body, killing her. As he once again locked the Seal, he turned to the Packs and Claire, who were in awe at his power. Peter commented that it was rather... intense... and disturbing. However, it was not over yet, as some of the Ghouls managed to escape. As they went to track them down, they were all surprised to see Neo, standing over a mountain of corpses, smiling. Everyone relaxes for a bit, and some start saying witty remarks, to defuse the tensioned atmosphere. Just then, Zoe rushes to the group, holding Nathan in her arms, shouting that something was wrong. She sets him down in front of Alucard, who immediately realizes his heart had stopped. Claire panics, asking if something like that was supposed to happen. Alucard makes a small cut on Nathan's arm, and tastes his blood. He realizes that the Vampire Virus was overtaxed, as Nathan's body was naturally very weak. He then starts performing CPR, trying to keep his heart beating. Claire asks if they should bite him, to add more of the Virus, but Alucard states that in this state, that could have fatal results. Finally and thankfully, Nathan stabilizes, and Alucard breathes a sigh in relief, telling everyone that it was OK now. Then, they take Nathan and the other two girls, and decide to head to Talbot Hall Once they reach it, Alucard and Sir John had an emotional reunion, with Alucard telling Sir John that he was old, but not obsolete. The two then told those present how they took down a Nazi base, where they were attempting to create zombies as soldiers. When asked about his age, he calmly stated that he was over 300, causing the members of both Packs to comically faint. Claire laughed, stating she had the same reaction when she first found out. While waiting for the three to awaken, Alucard and Sir Talbot starting telling each other what they had been doing since they parted ways, while Claire shows the Talbot Pack some of her powers and even tell them how the Darke Pack met her and Alucard. When the three wake up, Alucard introduces them to the world where they now belonged to, with some help from the Packs. The two girls immediately believed, but Nathan had trouble, processing all that, and left the room to think. Zoe offers to go after him. Following his scent, she reaches the roof. There, she finds Nathan sitting, and looking at the city in the distance. She sits down with him, and the two start talking about the current situation. Zoe tells Nathan of how she became a werewolf, and how it was difficult at first, but she adapted. Nathan asked if he was going to adapt as well, as he was always physically weaker than most people. Zoe told him that he was going to be fine, deciding not to tell him of the complications of his change. Meanwhile, the people where still talking about various things, when Claire suddenly proposed the formation of a coven. Peter became curious, and asked his grandfather about the vampire forms of organization. The older werewolf told Peter about Covens, and how vampires have their own ranking system, naming the ranks of the vampires present. When he called Alucard a King, Ashley asked for more details. Alucard explained that there are seven Kings, each ruling a part of the world. Alucard reveals himself to being the "Rogue" as he has no territory to call his own. He also revealed that he is considered by many the weakest of the kings, except the Packs since they witnessed what he is capable of, only in his Awakening. Nathan and Zoe return from the roof, and he tells the ones present that he will need time, but he is OK for now. Claire then teases the two, asking them where they had been all that time, and what they had been doing, causing the two to blush. Then, Sir Talbot once again opened the subject of forming a coven. Alucard agrees with this, knowing that vampires are stronger in numbers. He wants to assign Neo as leader, since he was the Ace, but he refuses, as he said he is too young. He asks Alucard to lead in his stead, until he is strong enough to do so himself. Soon after, the newly formed Nightwalkers say goodbye to the Talbot Pack, and fly out in the night. Character Appearances *'Alucard (first appearance)' *'Claire Nightshade (first appearance)' *'Neo Kane (first appearance)' *'Nathan Forge (first appearance)' *'Darke Pack (all members)' *'Peter Talbot' *'Mikey Corvis' *'Ashley Norwest' *'Kylie Ginxem' Quotes *'Peter' Alucard: I was given great power, even if I did not choose it. But I also gained great responsibility. I will protect the word from creatures like you, even if it leads to my death! **'Alucard' Peter: I see. Now I understand. I knew you seemed familiar. You are so much like your grandfather... Peter Talbot." *'Alucard' Bloody Mary: As I feared. You are just like the others, cowering at the true power of a King. at her with the corner of his eye, he continued You are still a hundred years to young to compete with me... little girl. than started to walk away Unfortunately, your time is up. *'Alucard' Sir Talbot: You're old... than smiling But not obsolete. *'Sir John Talbot': Alucard I may be old.. **'Alucard':... but you're not obsolete. Category:Chapters